1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to software development, and more particularly to developing and testing device drivers for target systems that may be used in a host system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Host systems like personal computers, notebooks, palmtops or the like sometimes have target systems embedded. Such embedded target devices may be integrated circuit chips, chip sets, processors or printed circuit boards or other kinds of hardware units. The target systems add functionality to the host system that would not be available to the host system without having embedded the target device.
To have embedded target systems operating properly, the host system may require dedicated driver software running on the host system. This device driver outputs data to, and receives data from, the embedded target in a specific format, complying with certain protocols.
Such target device drivers need to be developed and tested on the host system to be sure that the host system, having embedded the target system, operates properly. Thus, developing device drivers requires the presence of a target device within the host system.
If a new hardware target device is to be developed, the driver software development and testing is delayed until a target system sample is available to the software developers. Even if an early prototype of the target system is used for software development, there is an uncertainty that the final hardware implementation is changed. That is, situations may arise where new hardware does already exist for instance in a hardware simulation environment but reliably working driver software is not yet available.